Roseanne Barr On Her ‘Roseanne’ Firing: ‘I’ve Been Removed From The Process Of My Life’s Work’

By Brent Furdyk.
16 Oct 2018 6:50 PM

In advance of Tuesday’s premiere of the Roseanne-free “Roseanne” spinoff “The Conners”, HBO’s “Vice News Tonight” paid a visit to Roseanne Barr to see how the show’s disgraced former star is doing since being fired from the show that bore her name.

From the looks of the interview, also airing Tuesday, the answer is… not well.

While having her showbiz career grind to a halt has allowed more time for “real-life stuff, like, just going for a walk with my mom and having an ice-cream cone,” Barr admits she’s “really been sleeping a lot, like, probably 17 hours a day.” She’s also started smoking (“a very bad move”).

This was not how things were supposed to have gone. In fact, the 65-year-old comedian recalls being on top of the world when the “Roseanne” reboot became an instant hit when the premiere episode was watched by a staggering 28 million viewers. What was considered a risky reboot was suddenly TV’s #1 show. “So I was in a happy place,” she recalls.

And then she issued a middle-of-the-night tweet that changed everything: “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” she wrote, describing African-American political adviser Valerie Jarrett.

“It was characterized as racist,” she says of her career-ending tweet. “That made my stomach fall to my feet.”

She recalls watching from the sidelines as the controversy escalated, telling the network she’d “be happy to go on all the ABC shows and explain it, and apologize, but they said no, I wasn’t allowed to do that. Not too long after that, my mom was watching TV and saw that it was cancelled. And that was just the beginning.”

Five months later, Barr says she’s no longer in touch with anyone involved with the show. “I’ve been removed from the process of my life’s work,” she says. “It’s like the worst thing they could have possibly done to me, was to fire me from my own show and let other people write my life story.”